The Chinese Cuisine Festival takes place March 7-16 at 13 restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley.

The Chinese Cuisine Festival takes place March 7-16 at 13 restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley.

(Chinese Cuisine Festival)

Betty Hallock

"The Chinese Cuisine Festival: A Bite of Los Angeles" kicks off March 7 and runs until March 16, featuring restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley that represent the regional cuisines of China. Call it SGV Restaurant Week.

The 10-day event, organized by Icon Union, a Chinese student marketing platform, features 13 restaurants that will offer special and/or secret menus, including Chengdu Taste in Alhambra, Duck House in Monterey Park, Wok B.B.Q. in Monterey Park, Three Travellers Bone Hot Pot in Monterey Park, Hong Yei Restaurant in San Gabriel, Dong Ting Chun in San Gabriel, Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot in San Gabriel, Hunan Style Restaurant in San Gabriel, Beijing Restaurant in San Gabriel, Spicy City in San Gabriel, Beijing Tasty House in Rosemead, Haige Star in Rowland Heights and Zheng’s Fusion in Rowland Heights.

Henry Huang of Icon Union said organizers chose restaurants by first listing Chinese dish categories and then figuring out who were the top three restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley serving those dishes, based on the experiences and comments of team members, food critics and website ratings.

"However, most Chinese foodies, especially international students, are not Yelp users, so we did not heavily rely on its rating system," Huang said. "Since Icon Union is the largest Chinese student platform in California, it has a very strong student base and we have collected a lot of restaurant preferences on our social media. We think their experiences reflect what the most popular Chinese food and flavors are in China right now.

"We want this event to help people in Los Angeles to find the top Chinese food tastes similar to restaurants in China."